The present invention relates to a new and improved method of, and apparatus for, processing printed products, especially although not exclusively, newspapers, periodicals and the like.
In its more particular aspects, the present invention specifically relates to a new and improved method for processing of printed products arriving in an imbricated formation, such as newspapers, periodicals and the like, wherein the imbricated formation together with a tensioned winding band or strap is wound onto a hollow substantially cylindrical winding core or mandrel which rotates about an essentially horizontal axis. During the winding-up of the printed products which are infed in an imbricated formation a flat side or face of each such printed product confronts the hollow substantially cylindrical winding core or mandrel.
The present invention also relates to a method for processing printed products, such as newspapers, periodicals and the like, which have been wound upon a hollow substantially cylindrical winding core or mandrel in imbricated formation and in conjunction with a winding band or strap, wherein the printed products together with the winding band or strap are unwound from the wound product package previously formed on the winding core or mandrel.
As already heretofore noted the present invention also aims at the provision of a new and improved apparatus for processing printed products arriving in an imbricated formation and useful for the practice of the method aspects of the present development.
It is already known in this technology to wind as many printed products as possible onto a winding core or mandrel in order to avoid too frequent exchange of a full or finished wound product package against an empty winding core or, conversely, an empty winding core for a new wound product package in consideration of the presently prevailing conventional high operating speeds of modern rotary printing presses and their subsequently arranged processing equipment. Significant in this regard are Swiss Patent No. 559,691, granted Jan. 31, 1975 and Swiss Patent No. 642,602 and its cognate U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,618, granted Mar. 27, 1984. Wound product packages of such type are very large in size and heavy and cannot be easily handled or manipulated.
In the aforementioned Swiss Patent No. 559,691 it has been proposed to provide the hollow cylindrical winding core with disk-shaped lateral plates or cheek plates, the diameter of which is larger than the diameter of the wound product package which is formed from the wound-up printed products. These lateral plates or cheek plates are constructed to function as rolling rims or rings which render possible a rolling of the winding core together with the printed products wound thereupon. The wound winding cores are individually delivered from the wind-up station to an intermediate storage, and the winding core is rolled over at least a portion of its path of travel along inclined surfaces or planes. However, there are also used circular conveyors or chain conveyors for the transport of the wound product packages.
It is also furthermore known in this technology to transport the large size or voluminous and heavy wound product packages by means of specially constructed transport devices suitable for this purpose between the wind-up stations and the unwinding or wind-off stations and an intermediate storage or storage unit. Significant in this regard is the published PCT application Ser. No. WO 85/01279 and the corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,641,795, granted Feb. 10, 1987.